DS Forums

 
 

Bbc Hd Quality


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 28-08-2009, 21:46
bampsam
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: NORTHANTS
Posts: 992

I am positive the picture quality broadcast by the BBC HD channel is not as good as it was a couple of months ago. The sharpness is no longer there. Any ideas?
bampsam is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 28-08-2009, 22:15
Andrue
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Brackley, UK
Posts: 16,657
They have switched to new encoders that (they claim) have allowed them to reduce bandwidth without compromising quality. For the past couple of weeks they've been broadcasting at around 9Mb/s instead of 12Mb/s.

There's been a lot of debate here and in the Sky HD forums. It seems that most people think it's reduced the quality. There is also some debate about why the BBC has done this. Some think it's to make room for more HD content.
Andrue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-08-2009, 22:19
jzee
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 19,460
I am positive the picture quality broadcast by the BBC HD channel is not as good as it was a couple of months ago. The sharpness is no longer there. Any ideas?
They have got a new encoder and dropped the massively dropped the bitrate from 16 to about 9.4- already been long discussions on the Freesat forum, the Sky HD forum and the BBC blog.

They have switched to new encoders that (they claim) have allowed them to reduce bandwidth without compromising quality. For the past couple of weeks they've been broadcasting at around 9Mb/s instead of 12Mb/s.
The video bitrate used to be 16Mbps actually not 12.
There's been a lot of debate here and in the Sky HD forums. It seems that most people think it's reduced the quality. There is also some debate about why the BBC has done this. Some think it's to make room for more HD content.
If it's for more HD content that almost certainly means they'll be stat muxing/varying the bitrate which brings the question why they are now fixing it at such a low fixed level and thus letting themselves in for flak unnecessarily. Alternatively they may be able to fit two SD channels in the freed space (Fiver/Five USA?).
jzee is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-08-2009, 22:34
David500
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Somerset. UK
Posts: 102
Or is the space for ITV1 HD, which according to the Channel List on Join Freesat, is due to launch Dec 2009. See here.
David500 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-08-2009, 22:52
jzee
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 19,460
Or is the space for ITV1 HD, which according to the Channel List on Join Freesat, is due to launch Dec 2009. See here.
Could be, Five would probably have to move to an ITV transponder to allow that.
jzee is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-08-2009, 22:59
Rojcrad
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Ammanford
Posts: 64

We were one of the first households to have SkyHD installed, and the first footie match I recorded on BBC HD took up 25% of the disk!

I don't see any difference in the picture quality recently tho
Rojcrad is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-08-2009, 23:35
srhill
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Crawley, W Sussex
Posts: 5,556
We were one of the first households to have SkyHD installed, and the first footie match I recorded on BBC HD took up 25% of the disk!

I don't see any difference in the picture quality recently tho
You are in the minority then!

I suggest a visit to the SPL referees sponsor
srhill is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-08-2009, 01:53
White-Knight
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 2,494
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcintern...=13&ssoc=login
White-Knight is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-08-2009, 08:45
Br1an242
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Lincoln
Posts: 8

When I first came to HD, the BBC channel was superb but, like most folk, I have seen a marked deterioration over the past weeks. In particular, artifacts have, at times, made the programmes unwatchable.
However, I found last Sunday's episode of 'Rivers' was good - very few artifacts and a good picture. On Tuesday 'Coast' was awesome. - No artifacts and an incredibly sharp, clear picture. As I think I said elsewhere, BBC HD can outshine any other source - Keep up the good work.
Brian.
Br1an242 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-08-2009, 12:31
Andrue
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Brackley, UK
Posts: 16,657
'Rivers' was very good on SD at my parent's house as well. I suspect it was just very well filmed and didn't require much bandwidth.
Andrue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-08-2009, 00:56
White-Knight
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 2,494
Coast has been very poor so I can only assume Tuesdays episode which I didn't see was better.
White-Knight is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-08-2009, 01:06
Timothy Bryce
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,695
I got sky hd on launch day and remember a preview clip showing highlights of football and doc's.

Remember it being very detailed and much better than we have now.

Is this available anywhere to download, would be interesting to compare.
Timothy Bryce is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-08-2009, 06:09
bampsam
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: NORTHANTS
Posts: 992
Having a Samsung V+ box installed by Virgin Media on Saturday to replace Sky HD-hoping BBC HD PQ improves then!
bampsam is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 09:23.